…The expansion and contraction of the universe had to be so precise, not to the minute or the second, but to the picosecond. A picosecond is the time it takes to cross the width of a hair while traveling the speed of light.
-John Polkinghorne
What if God has you exactly where you would want to be if you had all the information he has.
-Dallas Willard
Resolution 1: I will see the unfortunate events of my life as faith builders leading to the greatest accomplishments of my life.
Resolution 2: I will affirm that God will often require me to do something that seems unreasonable.
Resolution 3: I will live with the resolution God will always lead me to do that which brings Him the most glory.
Resolution 4: God will usually strip us of everything we depend upon other than Himself.
Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside. ’Watch me,’ he told them. ‘Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’
-Judges 7:16-18
Resolution 4: God will usually strip us of everything we depend upon other than Himself.
What is your “Go-to” when the battle comes?
We refuse to stay in the valley long enough for God to accomplish his work.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
-Philippians 4:13
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
-Philippians 4:12
I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
-2 Corinthians 11:23-28
Greek: Ischuo: I can do.
In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! They asked each other, ‘Who did this?’ When they carefully investigated, they were told, ‘Gideon son of Joash did it.’ The people of the town demanded of Joash, ‘Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.’But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, ‘Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.’ So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, ‘Let Baal contend with him.’
-Judges 6:28-32
Who is Baal and what is the Ashtoreth Pole?
Torah: When the principle of illicit mixtures (sha’atnez) is violated, it inevitably leads to confusion and destruction.
“Sex has become a metric of one’s self-exploration or measure of how liberated they are. It’s become an identity marker.”
The modern church is so weak in its theology that we are confused and are disintegrating.
That same night the Lord said to him, ‘Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.’
-Judges 6:25-26
God will not compete with your idols!
What is an Idol?
The biblical concept of idolatry is an extremely sophisticated idea, integrating intellectual, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual categories. There are personal idols, such as romantic love and family; or money, power, and achievement, or access to a particular social circle; or other emotional dependence of others on you; or health, fitness, and physical beauty. Many look to these things for the hope, meaning, and fulfillment that only God can provide. Idols are not simply gods constructed out of wood and iron. They are ultimate things that have captured our hearts. The things we look upon and say, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel as though my life has meaning, I’ll know I have value. I’ll feel significant and secure.’ These are things that are given a controlling position in our hearts. We spend most of our passion and energy and emotional and financial resources on these things without a second thought. These are our go-to’s for hope, significance, and security. A career, my body and physical appearance, money, a political or social cause, romantic love, even a recreation.
-Dr. Tim Keller
God detests idol worship not because it’s bad for Him but because it’s bad for you.
Praying for revival means a few things:
It was the enraptured Rutherford who said in the midst of very painful trails and heartaches: 'Praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace.' The hammer is a useful tool, but the nail, if it had feeling and intelligence, could present another side of the story. For the nail knows the hammer only as an opponent, a brutal, merciless enemy who lives to pound it into submission, to beat it down out of sight and clinch it into place. That is the nail's view of the hammer, and it is accurate except for one thing: The nail forgets that both it and the hammer are servants of the same workman. Let the nail but remember that the hammer is held by the workman and all resentment toward it will disappear. The carpenter decides whose head will be beaten next and what hammer shall be used in the beating. That is his sovereign right. When the nail has surrendered to the will of the workman and has gotten a little glimpse of his benign plans for its future it will yield to the hammer without complaint. The file is more painful still, for its business is to bite into the soft metal, scraping and eating away the edges till it has shaped the metal to its will. Yet the file has, in truth, no real will in the matter, but serves another master as the metal also does. It is the master and not the file that decides how much shall be eaten away, what shape the metal shall take, and how long the painful filing shall continue. Let the metal accept the will of the master and it will not try to dictate when or how it shall be filed. As for the furnace,t is the worst of all. Ruthless and savage, it leaps at every combustible thing that enters it and never relaxes its fury till it has reduced it all to shapeless ashes. All that refuses to burn is melted to a mass of helpless matter, without will or purpose of its own. When everything is melted that will melt and all is burned that will burn, then and not till then the furnace calms down and rests from its destructive fury.
-A.W. Tozer, 'The Root of Rightneousness'
Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true. Isn’t that what life is all about, ‘the pursuit of happiness’. We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.
-Dr. Tim Keller, ‘Counterfiet Gods’
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord.
-Isaiah 31:1
What are you main takeaways from this message?
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